you live longer …
… only when you stop trying to live longer … Gawande on hospice care … an interview on npr.
death & dying
a biologist’s reflections on pain, dying, and hope …
… Robert Pollack shares his thoughts on our modern day rituals of death … “The current hospital response of science to the dying … goes something like this: “You have had the misfortune to be born too soon to benefit from science’s ever deeper comprehension of nature. That is too bad, but since we can
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the inevitability of death …
… “Were it not for the death of a companion, were it not for the death of a relative, of a person we know and care about, were it not for the death of someone close to us, were it not for the death of someone who in some way has crossed the path of
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assisted suicide … in Europe …
… a good summary of recent developments in Europe (UK, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands) re assisted suicide, euthanasia and non-voluntary euthanasia. “As the debate over euthanasia has continued in past months in Britain it became clear that opposition to loosening the law comes from many quarters. Brendan O’Neill, the editor of the online commentary site
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fear & control & the roots of our discomfort …
… about the mystery of life … “I think fear is a very big element in what we do–our living in a global reality probably elicits a lot of free-floating anxiety. We’re the first humans to have to do that. You try to find something to fix that anxiety on, and take control over whatever
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death and the maiden …
The Ride of Eternity Luigi Giussani In the first movement of Schubert’s quartet, after the very brief, almost involuntary, passing hint at death, there is like a sudden reawakening and life returns triumphant. The whole of the first movement is as though determined by the affirmation of life, death is as though obliterated. But death
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father’s day …
… In the Name of the Sons explores the lives of several fathers who have lost sons in our recent wars. “On a cold night last October, two men stood shoulder to shoulder in front of a small crowd sitting silently in a sparsely furnished room in Flatlands, Brooklyn. Marlowe Fletcher was the shorter of
even in the extreme darkness …
… of the most absolute human loneliness we can listen to a voice that calls us, and we can find a hand that takes hold of us and leads us out. The human being lives because he is loved and can love; if love has penetrated even into the realm of death, life has arrived
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I’m not afraid to die …
… John Wooden on death … and life … Lindsey Yourman at Geripal alerts us to a video of John Wooden discussing death and life (entire Rick Reilly interview here) … and reciting the poem below. Another tribute (with lots of links) to Wooden here. “Once I was afraid of dying, Not Anymore” by Swen Nater
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the swan … Rainer Maria Rilke …
The Swan This laboring through what is still undone, as though, legs bound, we hobbled along the way, is like the awkward walking of the swan. And dying – to let go, no longer feel the solid ground we stand on every day – is like his anxious letting himself fall into the water, which
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